First build(s) - Christmas for the kids

[tisbury]

Hello all! Wondering if I could get some ideas for my first build(s). Kids are 10 & 12, both have mediocre laptops that they are currently gaming on. They are pretty bad rigs for gaming so I'm going to build them some desktops for Christmas. These will certainly not need to be extravagant beasts, and I would prefer to keep them as cheep as humanly possible since they are only allowed 1-2hrs gaming per day at most and I don't foresee them becoming professional gamers...
Note: Son plays Fortnite, daughter plays Star Stable. Both complain of lag. Both are wired and are getting 200mbps down.

I'm guessing I will be purchasing most of the parts over the Black Friday / Cyber Monday time frame, which will give me plenty of time for the builds. I could care less about RGB, pretty liquid coolers, etc. Just want strong, powerful computers with enough oomph to cover their needs.

Thanks in advance!
-T-

 

[punkncat]

If you are looking for a minimum spec system that you don't want to "lag"...well, that could be all over. Since you are considering two of the exact same build are you looking at this from a 'want to build it, will be fun' standpoint, or 'just need two computers' standpoint? How long do you expect them to be useful?

IMO, the cheapest way to come out of this would be to consider two factory reconditioned "off lease" type business boxes with the room inside for you to add a meager video card.
Just above that in the don't want to mess with it category would be two mildly spec'ed factory builds new from somewhere.
Lastly, the I want to do these builds route....

Pure cheapest build myself, I would go 1xxx Ryzen on a locked chipset, RX580, cheapo case, cheapo SSD, and cheapo 1tb bulk storage with a half decent brand PSU. I still think you could see decent perf out of a repurposed refurb as mentioned above for this.

 

[Peter Martin]

If their needs are overwatch, fortnight and GTA well you’re in for a shock about prices. It depends on what the word “needs” means here

My kid has always gamed on consoles and I keep his laptop simple but sufficient for his work and needs

 

[punkncat]

Yeah, I wouldn't honestly expect you can build your own system any manner of capable of this less than ~$500 sans OS.

 

[Peter Martin]

Oh yeah one more thing, planning on getting everything that you need the stuff that’s compatible with your build—might not be on sale on that day

 

[punkncat]

Oh yeah one more thing, planning on getting everything that you need the stuff that’s compatible with your build—might not be on sale on that day

So true.

It's rather a PITA when you chose to buy the items on sale and wait it out come build time when something you bought too far back to RMA doesn't work as expected.

For the most part, lower end stuff can be picked up for nearly the same prices with a bit of looking around.

 

[WildCard999]

It's tough for us to really recommend anything since your looking at mid November for parts and prices/part recommendations can change quite a bit from now until then. I'd actually recommend asking this question about two weeks prior to buying and giving us a budget for each system and if it will need to include a OS and peripherals.

 

[Peter Martin]

If you have to build two machines that need to be able to game without a video card I would use Ryzen 5 2400G 16 GB Dual Channel DDR4 3000. Or or the fastest dual channel DDR4 you can get your hands on

Also SSDs. Crucial and Samsung are great

 

[logainofhades]

Given that new Nvidia cards, and new Intel CPU's will be out before Black Friday time frame, I would wait till you are a bit closer to that.

 

[punkncat]

Another thing to pile on. Think about the monitor(s) you will be using for this. You would want to keep the response time as low as possible if they are already discerning 'lag'. They may pick you to the bones if you stick with something over 5ms

 

[g-unit1111]

Given that new Nvidia cards, and new Intel CPU's will be out before Black Friday time frame, I would wait till you are a bit closer to that.

Also keep in mind that good hardware *NEVER* gets discounted on Black Friday. It's usually cheap high volume junk to get you in the door that's discounted.

 

[logainofhades]

Given that new Nvidia cards, and new Intel CPU's will be out before Black Friday time frame, I would wait till you are a bit closer to that.

Also keep in mind that good hardware *NEVER* gets discounted on Black Friday. It's usually cheap high volume junk to get you in the door that's discounted.

I have scored some good deals, on ram and ssd's, from Newegg, in the past.

 

[WildCard999]

Those games have some pretty low requirements. Have you tried updating the drivers on the GPU/iGPUs and seeing if performance was increased? Maybe try adjusting settings or even lowering the res may help enough for the laptops not to lag.

 

[cryoburner]

I agree that waiting until closer to the time of purchase would be best, since prices are likely to fluctuate, especially with a new generation of graphics cards coming out. What kind of price range were you considering for each of the systems though? And what kind of hardware do their existing laptops have?

 

[Eximo]

Given that new Nvidia cards, and new Intel CPU's will be out before Black Friday time frame, I would wait till you are a bit closer to that.

Also keep in mind that good hardware *NEVER* gets discounted on Black Friday. It's usually cheap high volume junk to get you in the door that's discounted.

I have scored some good deals, on ram and ssd's, from Newegg, in the past.

Indeed, but those are loss leaders to hopefully get you to buy compatible parts at full price.

 

[Peter Martin]

I really like that Pc parts picker site

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

 

[Eximo]

I'm not so sure some APUs wouldn't fit the bill here. Black Friday/Cyber Monday would be spent hunting for combo deals. Very upgradeable little systems. You could save some money by dropping down into R3-2200G, but the 2400G makes a more adequate CPU for any potential future GPU upgrades.

An alternative would be to look at an Intel i3-8100 and a low end GPU like the GTX1050.

But mostly just an idea to have in your head for rough cost.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($93.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Green 240GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($54.61 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.94 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($94.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $533.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-21 16:23 EDT-0400

 

[Peter Martin]

my build is sitting at 759 each. so, let's do that cpu swap and get a card and see....